Table Of ContentIRELAND
The
Background
To The
Conflict
Edited by
John Darby
Northern Ireland: The Background
to the Conflict is a detailed and dis¬
passionate study of the major
social characteristics of the
Northern Ireland conflict. Con¬
centrating on the last thirteen
years, the book is much broader in
scope than previous studies, and
covers an enormous range.
Different chapters examine issues
of law and order; the failure to con¬
struct a workable political system;
the relationship between economic
development and the conflict; in¬
formal social organisation; the role
of schools; the demographics of
violence; the re-emergence of the
IRA; and political changes during
the period.
The book provides an understand¬
ing of the variety and complexities
of the issues and relationships.
While avoiding a single diagnosis
or solution, it suggests that, instead
of the frequently-mentioned in¬
transigence of Ulster people, what
are perhaps more apparent are the
understandings and accommoda¬
tions which add subtlety to rela¬
tionships between Catholics and
Protestants.
NORTHERN
IRELAND
The Background
To
The conflict
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NORTHERN
IRELAND
The Background
To THE CONFLICT
Edited by
John Darby
APPLETREE PRESS
SYRACUSE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
C. B. A*
First published and printed in 1983 by
The Appletree Press Ltd
7 James Street South
Belfast BT2 SDL
Northern Ireland
First published in the U.S.A. in 1983 by
Syracuse University Press
Syracuse
New York 13210
123456789 10
This collection copyright © Appletree Press, 1983
Cover: adapted from F. E. Me William ‘Woman in Bomb Blast’
1974. Collection: Ulster Museum, Belfast.
All rights reserved
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Northern Ireland: the background to the
conflict—(Modern Irish Society, ISSN
0263-595X)
1. Northern Ireland—Social conditions
1. Darby, John 11. Series
941.60824 HN398.N6
ISBN 0-904651-90-8
ISBN 0-904651-89-4 Pbk
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Northern Ireland.
Bibliography: p.
1. Northern Ireland—Politics and government—1969-
2. Northern Ireland—Social conditions—1969-
1. Darby, John (John P.)
DA990.U46N675 1983 941.60824 83-4114
ISBN 0-8156-2298-8
Contents
Contributors 6
Introduction 7
1. The Historical Background 13
John Darby
2. Law and Order 32
Paddy Hillyard
3. Political Parties: Traditional and Modern 61
Ian McAllister
4. Economic Development: Cause or Effect in the Northern
Ireland Conflict 79
John Simpson
5. Informal Social Organization 110
Hastings Donnan and Graham McFarlane
6. Schools and Conflict 136
Dominic Murray
7. The Demography of Violence 151
Michael Poole
8. From Conflict to Violence: The Re-emergence of the IRA
and the Loyalist Response 181
Barry White
9. Reformism and Sectarianism: The State of the Union after
Civil Rights 197
Bill Ralston
10. The Logistics of Inquiry: A Guide for Researchers 225
John Darby
Bibliography 244
Index 268
568582
Contributors
John Darby is a lecturer in Social Administration at the New University of Ulster.
Publications include Conflict in Northern Ireland{G\\\ and Macmillan, 1976) and
Violence and the Social Services in Northern Ireland (with Arthur Williamson,
Heinemann, 1978).
Hastings S. C. Donnan is a lecturer in Social Anthropology at Queen’s University,
and his research interests are in North Pakistan and Northern Ireland.
Paddy Hillyard is lecturer in Social Policy at the University of Bristol. Co-author
o^ Law and State: The Case of Northern Ireland {Martin Robertson, 1975) and Ten
Years On in Northern Ireland: The Legal Control of Political Violence (Cobden
Trust, 1980).
Ian McAllister is researching electoral behaviour at the Australian National
University, Canberra. Published work includes The Northern Ireland Social
Democratic and Labour Party (Macmillan, 1977) and United Kingdom Facts
(with Richard Rose, Macmillan, 1982).
W. Graham McFarlane is a lecturer in Social Anthropology at Queen’s Uni¬
versity, Belfast. He has carried out research in Northern Ireland and Shetland.
Dominic Murray is a lecturer in Education at University College, Cork, and has
written widely on the ramifications of segregated educational structures in
Northern Ireland.
Michael Poole is a lecturer in Geography at the New University of Ulster, and his
interests are in social and quantitive geography, especially segregation
measurement.
Bill Rolston lectures in Sociology at the Ulster Polytechnic. His publications
include Northern Ireland: Between Civil Rights and Civil War {with Liam O’Dowd
and Mike Tomlinson, CSE Books, 1980).
John Simpson is a Senior Lecturer at Queen’s University, Belfast. He worked with
Professor T. Wilson in the drafting of the Northern Ireland Economic Develop¬
ment Programme in 1963-64, and is the author of many papers on the Northern
Ireland economy.
Barry White has been commenting on Northern Ireland politics since the early
1960s as political correspondent, columnist and chief leader writer of the Belfast
Telegraph. He won the prize for Northern Ireland feature writer of the vear in
1980.
Introduction
The most recent bibliography on the Northern Irish conflict contains
more than 3,000 references, almost all published since the eruption of
community violence in the late 1960s. Their variety is intriguing and
bewildering: political scientists, psychologists, historians, demo¬
graphers and social scientists of all descriptions suspiciously rub
shoulders, and occasionally commit the cardinal academic sin of
invading each other’s territory; polemicists and propagandists of every
shade in the Irish political spectrum—orange, green, red and, since the
arrival of the British army in 1969, khaki—vie with each other in
broadsheets, pamphlets, newspapers and manifestos; to add spice to
the stew, more than one hundred novels have been located in the back
streets, bogs and beds of Northern Ireland, as if there were not enough
fantasy already. The first problem for any new book, therefore, is to
justify an addition to the list.
To start by clearing the ground, this book is not an attempt to
present another definitive analysis of the Northern Irish conflict. On
the contrary, the aim is to provide a more realistic understanding of
the variety and complexities of the issues and relationships within the
province, avoiding a single diagnosis and solution. For writers outside
Northern Ireland in particular, the main interest in the conflict is the
apparent starkness and intransigence of its divisions. On closer
examination it might be argued more convincingly that the real contri¬
bution of the Northern Irish conflict to a better appreciation of
community violence lies in the understandings and accomodations
which add subtlety to the relationships between Catholics and
Protestants in Northern Ireland.
This, of course, is not enough. Every book is based on certain pre¬
sumptions, sometimes explicit, sometimes disguised and sometimes
unknown even to the author. They are important because they exclude
certain concerns from the book, and impose limits on its intentions.
Why is the issue defined as Northern Irish, rather than Irish, problem?
Why are the chapters organised as they are? What are the political and
ideological assumptions which underpin it? In the case of a book
which contains nine papers by different authors, similar types of
questions might be posed for each chapter and can only be answered
8 Introduction
within that context. However, even before any of the nine pens
touched paper, the conception of the book, and the invitations to
contribute papers to it, reflected explicit premises. Two were
particularly important in directing the aims of the book and shaping
its form, and require a brief justification. One is the decision to confine
the papers to an internal study of Northern Ireland, and the other
concerns the effects of the current violence.
One hundred years ago the issues which provoked political
dissention in Ireland were the questions of Irish self-determination and
Anglo-Irish relations; Ulster was an irritating subplot to more historic
developments. In 1921, however, the island was partitioned. Since
then, sixty years of separate institutions have formalised the
differences between the two parts of Ireland, and concentrated the
constitutional issue within the six counties of Northern Ireland.
For Protestants the reluctant acceptance of the new constitutional
arrangements in 1921 had hardened by the 1980s into a fierce loyalty
to Northern Ireland. Catholics were more ambivalent; while most
aspired towards some association with the rest of the island, many saw
an accomodation with Protestants within Northern Ireland as a
greater priority. Even the most nationally-minded were affected by
sixty years of living within the institutions and rivalries of the
province, and even the form of their opposition accorded a level oi de
facto acceptance to the unit, and ambivalence towards the south. The
Irish question of 1883 had become the Northern Ireland problem of
1983. For many in Northern Ireland, the issue of Anglo-Irish conflict
had been overtaken by the question of Protestant-Catholic relations
within Northern Ireland.
The theme of this book is an examination of these relations. The
omission of papers on the external dimensions of the conflict arises
from this, and is deliberate. To consider properly the roles of Britain,
the Irish Republic and the United States would have required a
different type of book, and distracted from the primary emphasis of
this one. This is not to suggest that the broader setting is unimportant.
On the contrary, the presence of the British army since 1969, and the
operation of Direct Rule from Westminster since 1974, are only two of
the more obvious illustrations of how central are external elements in
the origins and nature of the issue. They are clearly essential subjects
for study. Indeed the conflict is often discussed exclusively at this level,
as if the only important parties in effectively reducing violence are
outside the province, despite the fact that their initiatives have been
